Our Little Fashionista

To me, a fashionista is a person that sets trends with their clothing, someone that isn't afraid to go out into uncharted waters with how they dress. And if that is the case - we definitely have one of those in our house! Tori has recently been discovering the art of dressing herself. I think her favorites are socks and shoes.

My favorite is when she puts either Jared's or my socks on!

Definitely a fashion statement!!!

Anther fun Tori trend - to wear as many clothes on your legs as possible!

It might take a bit for this trend to catch on!!!

If this keeps up, we are going to have to start doing laundry a lot more often!!!

Happy Birthday to Me!

I am finding that birthdays become interesting the older I get. I no longer count down the days until my birthday - sometimes they even sneak up on me. Which is kind of what happened with today. I knew my birthday was coming, and I knew that Jared was really busy with work and wouldn't be home until late, so I wasn't really planning on much. But then fun things started to happen right from the start! A sister in our institute class totally surprised me by bringing a cake and flowers to our class this morning!!! The cake was so yummy and I was truly touched that she was so thoughtful to even remember it was my birthday - definitely a good way to start out the day! Then Tori and I were able to go to lunch with Molly and Brooklyn - another unexpected addition to the day! It was so nice to get out of the house, to eat some great food, and best of all, to spend time with a fabulous friend! Thanks so much Molly - I loved every minute!!! This evening Jared also surprised me with the perfect card and some very sweet gifts - yep, I even got a little teary-eyed! And then there were the numerous texts, phone calls, cards, and messages from my dear family - thank you so much for all of them!!!
So for a day I almost forgot about, it turned out to be spectacular! Thanks for all of you that helped make it that way!!!

Grandpa Time!

I don't know exactly what it is, but there is something magical about Grandpas! For some reason, it is just way more fun to do pretty much anything when they are around. At least it seems like that any time Tori is around her Grandpas! For example:

Tons more fun to make phone calls and send text messages with Grandpa!

Playing with your new big ball is way more fun with Grandpa!!!

Only a Grandpa could get you to laugh this hard:

And reading a book is definitely better when Grandpa is doing the reading!

We are so glad that Grandpa Allen was able to come visit us this past weekend - we all had a fabulous time! And we loved watching Tori make so many fun memories!!!

Happy Easter!

Easter is one of my favorite holidays! But not because of all the extra commercially stuff (even though that part is fun). I love Easter because it is a day where we really focus on the Savior and his amazing Atonement for each of us! And I also feel like it represents a newness of sorts - welcoming in spring and a reawakening of the beauties of this world. Today I have really enjoyed watching our little Tori- for some reason a little girl in her Easter dress seems to be another reminder of all the good things that Easter represents!

Tori was a champ and let me do fun things with her hair today!

Tori loved checking out her Easter dress!

Our beautiful girl!!!

Happy Easter everyone - we hope that your day was absolutely wonderful!!!

Easter Eggstravaganza!!!

Today we spent the day doing most of the fun egg things associated with Easter. We started out this morning with an Easter egg hunt. Jared did a fantastic job hiding the eggs in plain sight so it wouldn't get too frustrating for our little egg hunter! It really didn't take Tori much time to figure out how this whole thing worked!

Daddy and Grandpa did a great job pointing a few eggs out!

She found another one!

Here is our egg hunter in action. As a little side note, we practiced putting the eggs in her basket last night- without any candy in them yet. So today, every time Tori would find another egg she would give it a good shake just to make sure there was something inside!!!

First glimpse inside - hurrah for candy!

Trying out her jelly beans - I'm not sure if she was a fan at first. But don't worry, Tori was wolfing them down in no time!!!

Here is Tori with her "big ball" that she got for Easter - talk about a hit!!!

Eating jelly beans and coloring Easter eggs - what a great way to wrap up the day!

Tori was a big helper in the coloring process!

Here is her new cheesy smile - I love it!!!

Tori and Grandpa's egg was the best by far!!!

Today was just a great day from start to finish! And it was even better with Grandpa and Prince here to share in it with us!!!

An Easter Surprise!

Really, I guess I should say that Tori received two Easter surprises today. The first was a visit from Grandpa Allen! And Grandpa brought the second surprise with him- Tori's new puppy! Even though we had been talking to her about Grandpa and Princeton (her puppy) coming for several days, I really don't think she realized what we meant. Here are some really cute pictures and a video of Tori and Princeton's first meeting!!!

Princeton waiting to meet Tori - he stayed in that basket much longer than I expected!
Tori was so excited to see her puppy for the first time!

And it seemed like Prince was pretty excited to meet her too!

Tori and her two Easter surprises!!!

Jared couldn't resist cuddling with our cute puppy for just a minute or two!
Tori did great until Prince got a little too close - I'm sure that won't last long!

Yep - it didn't take Tori very long to start playing with her puppy!!!

We took this video as we were winding up for the night - I think it captures my favorite moments of Tori meeting Princeton! I have a feeling that these two are going to become inseparable in no time at all!!!

Tori's Big News!!!

Yep - she is pretty excited about her news!!!

Our Little Climber

Lately Tori has been climbing on anything and everything she can. For the most part, it really isn't too big of a deal. But the last few days, she has been climbing on her little scooter in order to climb higher on the bookshelves. After watching our bookshelves sway slightly, I knew we had to nix this one quickly. Jared had the brilliant idea to turn her scooter back into a push toy. You would think that Tori got a brand new toy - she has been having a great time figuring out new ways to play with a push toy now that she is such a big girl!

Tori has been brushing up on her dog sledding skills...

invented a new killer ab workout...

and even flies every once in a while!!!

Yeah for old toys that all the sudden seem new again!

Sticks

I am sure that at least one of Tori's uncles (Uncle Dillon perhaps :) ) will be highly dismayed by this news, but out little girl has discovered sticks! And she loves them!!! We were outside playing with Tori's colored bubbles (hence the speckles all over her face in the pictures), when she made her first stick find!

Jared and I were cracking up at how attached she got to her sticks!

This one is for Uncle Dillon- Tori also picked a few flowers along the way!!!

Having a Ball

Grandma and Grandpa Allen gave Tori her Easter present a few weeks ago. But we couldn't post anything about it until her cousin Linken got his too! Linken received his today- the cat is now out of the bag, so to speak- and we can post some fun pictures of Tori and her awesome ball pit!!!

Testing it out - it was a hit right off the bat!

Uncle Dillon and...

Uncle Alec had a great time helping her discover everything!!!

Tori was definitely having a ball!!!

Love this grin!

The ball pit makes a great place for "peek-a-boo" - this is one of my favorites!!!

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for the wonderful gift - Tori absolutely loves, loves, loves it!!!

Published!

Shortly before Tori was born, several of the audiologists I worked with at Riley and I had the opportunity to write a chapter for an audiology text book. Now, I have always thought it would be neat to have something published, but never thought that opportunity would come along. Our chapter ended up being a huge project that took us all many months. Looking back- our final product was so much different than our first concept. But, I think we all agreed it turned out infinitely better than we had anticipated and were very pleased with the chapter we submitted! The text book was published a few months ago, but I got to see it for the first time this afternoon - here it is!!!

As I was glancing through the other chapters, I must admit that it is pretty neat to see my name in the same book as names such as Richard Seewald, Anne Marie Tharpe, James Hall, and many others. But the ones I am the most proud to share this book with are all the names on our chapter:

I couldn't have worked with a finer group of audiologists and am so glad to count you all among my dearest friends!!!

Snack Time with Daddy

Today Tori woke up from her 3.5 hour nap extremely happy. As soon as she officially wakes up (ie plays for a bit in her crib, hands us all her blankets and stuffed animals, surrenders the Binky, and plays for a little bit upstairs), Rachel takes her downstairs for her afternoon snack. This past week it has been my spring break and what a joy it has been to be home and relax and enjoy some quality time with my family. It was during this week I have come to realize just how much Rachel does here at home. This realization especially hit me hard yesterday and today. Rachel has had the wonderful opportunity to attend a 2.5 day Audiology Conference that takes place her in Indy every year. The reason why this is so awesome is that in order to keep her certification Rachel has to receive so many hours a year of continuing education and a majority if not all of her hours needed come from this conference. The audiology conference started yesterday and will continue until late Saturday morning. Since it is my spring break I have had the wonderful opportunity to spend some quality time at home being Mr. Mom over the past two days. It is hard work let me tell you. By the time Rachel comes home from her conference I am wasted. Tori is a such joy but also a little ball of energy. Anyways, to stick with the pattern my wife laid out for our beautiful girl, I would take her down for a snack after she woke up from her nap. Today she must have slept really well because her and I really enjoyed snack time. She was all full of giggles. I hope you enjoy our snack time as much as we did today!!!

Tori even lets out a snort or two in this one!!!

Rachel, I love you for the sacrifices you make daily in order to stay at home with Tori. Tori and I hope you enjoyed your conference. We miss you terribly but we are so proud of you and your desire to keep your certification valid!!!

PS: There will be more blogs posted below this one so please stay tuned for more of Rachel's updates of our excursions over that past few weeks.